Chapter One

In Noel Carroll’s The Philosophy of Horror, the genre “art-horror” is defined in the first chapter. His book is only taking that genre of horror and identifying it with philosophy. Horror is a category of ordinary language which we communicate and receive information. Its existence is already recognized in ordinary language. Art-horror however is different because it is generated by art that was produced first in the mid eighteenth century, with variations of Gothic forms in England and Germany. Carroll explains that monsters are the key ingredient in the recipe of art-horror. These monsters however cannot be the same as monsters in such stories as fairytales and myths. The monsters in fairytales are ordinary creatures in an extraordinary world. However, the monsters in art-horror have to be extraordinary creatures in an ordinary world. The monsters in art-horror are seen as impure and disgusting. The monsters impurity suggests that they are un-natural and not apart of our world, they are unknown and live outside the cultural categories. They also can be threatening socially, physically, and morally. In art-horror the characters also play a role as they will bring out the emotions of the audience, who can identify and relate to them on a personal kind of level. The emotions of the audience mirror the emotions of the characters. But these emotions that we feel with the characters are mere flashes such as flashes of anger, fear, and danger. We quickly move on from these emotions because they are not happening to us personally. I think these emotions can also be amplified by lighting, music, and other effects such as fog. When there is a loud burst of music, I generally get scared for a split second and a thrill of danger. As well as when there is haunting slow music and fog there is an emotion of curiosity and dread.
Carroll also explains that art-horror is made up of five categories such as fusion, fission, magnification, massification, and horrific metonymy. Fusion and fission both make up horrific biologies as fusion shows the threatening and disgusting qualities of a monster that is un-natural to society. Fission takes the role as it can divide the monster up in time as two different beings. By day the monster might be a nice guy but at night he turns into a threatening and disgusting wolf. This fission monster can however make the audience sympathize with it because of the fact that it can be two totally different beings with one that we might just be able to relate too. Magnification shows the way that monsters can be very large and bigger than many things in society such as people and buildings. The monster seems to have more power and control because it is so much larger than the victim. Massification is the category in which the monster can be in multiples also showing the power and strength it can have in mass. Lastly, horrific metonymy is the environment which surrounds the characters. The environment can be just as creepy as a monster as it goes into the unknown and mysterious. It can also have effects as a storm or heavy fog.
I never really noticed all of the attributes that Carroll explains that are in horror movies. I didn’t really think there could be so many ingredients that make it up. This chapter will be very helpful in studying and watching horror movies as I now know what to look for that will classify and tell me what kind of genre a horror movie is while I am watching it.